‘We are lazy’ admits Mick Jagger as Rolling Stones launches first album in 18 years
Mick Jagger says it took just three months to put new album Hackney Diamonds together and reveals the Rolling Stones have recorded enough music for another one.
The Rolling Stones are back – after an 18 year hiatus – with a fan-pleasing new album, and first song, “Angry”: which resonates with another crunching Keith Richards guitar riff.
Mick Jagger quietly boasts of the album that took just three months to put together between December 2022 and Valentines Day: “I don’t wanna be big-headed, but we wouldn’t have put this album out if we hadn’t really liked it”.
“We said we had to make a record we really love ourselves. We are quite pleased with it.’’
Keith Richards says of the new 12 song album: “I love the riffs”.
The two band members, who have had a rocky relationship since their primary school days together in Dartford, East London some seven decades ago, offered some advice about long term relationships.
Jagger, wearing a black brocade jacket and purple scarf, smiled as he remarked: “Not speaking too often.” Richards added: “Knowing how to tell someone to shut up politely.”
The new album is titled Hackney Diamonds, a slang phrase that refers to the broken glass left behind by smash and grab car thieves.
“It’s ’cause we’re a London band’’, insisted Jagger about the title.
He later revealed they would have a darts competition among themselves in the East London pub next door to the Hackney Empire Theatre after the media launch, which had been teased for several days with landmark projections of their mouth and tongue logo and cryptic ads in local newspapers.
Ronnie Wood was there too, revealing that the three had recorded enough material for two albums. Two of the songs involve the band’s late drummer Charlie Watts.
“You’ve got to keep your fingers moving — at our age, you have to keep everything moving,” Wood said.
Jagger hinted some of the songs were bluesy, a love song, a bit of country and apparently there is a hint of disco on one.
He said the album also featured a gospel song, “Sweet Sound of Heaven” with Lady Gaga, which prompted Richards to lurch into a fit of giggles.
“You’ve never been to church in your life,” Richards said.
Other guest artists on the album include Stevie Wonder and former Stones bassist Bill Wyman.
Respected album producer Andrew Watt is also co-writer for three of the songs.
Jagger admitted the band had been “a bit too lazy” in leaving such a long period between producing records and attributed Watt with “kicking us up the arse”.
Said the front man: “Suddenly we said, let’s put a deadline … We did it pretty quick. There were a lot of ideas floating about and we gathered them together just before Christmas.”
The video accompanying Angry is a throwback to their 70s and 80s heyday, with a nubile blonde actor, Sydney Sweeney, writhing over a car – red, of course. Along the motorway are billboards, flashing back the years to the band’s earlier times.
Just why Jagger, 80, Richards, 79, and Wood, 76, are obsessing about someone young enough to be their great granddaughter thrusting her breasts down the camera lens in a post Me Too world is unclear. But Stones fans will love the retro music, regardless.